Information misbehavior: How organizations use information to deceive

Abstract Recent examples of organizational wrongdoing such as those that led to the opioid crisis and 2008 financial meltdown show organizations can deliberately use information deceive others, resulting in serious harm. This brief communication explores role wrongdoing. We analyze a dataset consisting 80 cases high‐penalty corporate United States period 2000–2020. Our analysis documents filed by US Department Justice federal regulatory agencies found two general strategies mislead. First, “sow doubt” on statements others hurt organization's interests. Second, “exploit trust” have placed them provide truthful information. suggests which strategy is adopted depends degree external environment “contested” or “controlled.” Across examined, we observe three types behaviors implement sowing doubt exploiting trust: obfuscation, concealment, falsification.